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Keep, Bear and Use

By Andrew Rosenthal April 12, 2012 1:37 pmApril 12, 2012 1:37 pm

The modern drive against gun control started with an expansive interpretation of the Second Amendment as bestowing an absolute, individual right to “keep” and “bear” arms, rather than a societal right based on the need for a “well-regulated militia.”

But we are now in a new and dangerous phase of the gun movement, in which extremists led by the National Rifle Association are pushing beyond “keep” and “bear” to “use.” They are pressing state and federal lawmakers to make it easier for people to shoot other people.

As Erica Goode reported in today’s Times, the killing of Trayvon Martin by an armed vigilante in Florida has focused attention on the successful campaign by the N.R.A. and the American Legislative Exchange Council, a right-wing lobbying group, to pass “stand your ground” laws in more than two dozen states in recent years.
In 2011, Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin worked with both of those groups to pass a bill that started out as an effort to make it harder to prosecute someone who used deadly force against an intruder in his home – but then morphed into a license to kill that applies on lawns, sidewalks and swimming pools outside the residence, as well as vehicles and places of business.

Part of what makes this effort so insidious is that it is largely a solution in search of a problem. All states have long upheld some version of the so-called Castle Doctrine (which comes from the old saw about a man’s home being one), granting individuals the right to protect themselves against intruders. Historically, this was often coupled with a “duty to retreat” before resorting to lethal force, which seems perfectly reasonable. Why end someone’s life if it’s not absolutely necessary?

There is no epidemic of homeowners going to jail after defending themselves from a break-in. On the contrary, juries are often extremely lenient. In Colorado more than 30 years ago, I covered a trial in which an Iranian student was acquitted after he shot and killed a 15-year-old with a deer rifle, from his balcony, across the parking lot of his apartment complex, at night, because he thought the youth and his friends had thrown a bomb through his window.

This ought to be a good time for a discussion about gun control. But the N.R.A. starts its national convention tomorrow in St. Louis, Mo., and you can be sure there will be no such discussion. Only triumphalist statements of progress in the fight against sensible gun control and dire talk about how we’re all at risk of someone bursting into our homes—or swimming pools—at any minute.

They certainly will not discuss these statistics, compiled by the Violence Policy Center, on the homicide rate for African Americans, which is more than three times the overall homicide rate. The overwhelming majority of victims are killed by guns, and the majority of those are killed by handguns. Missouri leads the nation in this appalling statistic.